Provision and management of water are increasingly critical issues in arid and semi-arid lands like Arizona, Israel, and Palestine. Water reuse and desalination comprise significant elements of each region?s strategy for assuring future water supplies in the face of climate change and persistent drought. The workshop assembles the broad, interdisciplinary expertise necessary to meet the complex challenges of water management faced by each region. It is designed to (1) identify pressing water issues related to long-term water sustainability, reuse, and desalination through educational presentations and facilitated dialogue among participants (2) develop a targeted, international collaborative research program that addresses research gaps and opportunities. The plenary presentations are an essential prelude as they provide water professionals and scholars from different regions with a common understanding of key issues underlying provision of water of sufficient quality and quantity to meet the multiple, growing demands of semi-arid regions. This shared understanding establishes the foundation necessary to formulate strong research proposals for funding. The program convenes water managers, nongovernmental organization representatives, students, and scholars from a range of disciplines, including economics, engineering, biology, geography, and law, to examine improving water treatment, expanding reuse and desalination, climate change and drought planning, water pricing, environmental water needs, and management of shared water supplies. The workshop will be held from August 31 to September 2, 2009. In terms of the broader impacts, the outcomes will generally benefit arid and semi-arid regions struggling with water shortages, poor water quality, and ineffective governance. Since Palestinians and Israelis share surface and groundwater supplies, the workshop serves to promote collaborative efforts in the Middle East. It does so by allowing time for constructive identification of research needs and development of an international, collaborative research program. This program?s significance rests on the paramount importance of water to the prosperity of each region and the role that peaceful collaboration by invited expertise can play in devising feasible, long-term solutions for communities in the regions of focus and beyond. This project was co-funded by the Environmental Engineering program in the CBET division.
